Cloud, data and AI are firmly on the agenda for emergency services, but turning ambition into action is often the biggest challenge. From ageing infrastructure and siloed data to AI governance and leadership buy-in, organisations are looking for practical ways to modernise while maintaining the resilience and security frontline services depend on.
Ahead of The Emergency Tech Show 2026, we spoke to ANS about helping emergency services build a clear digital transformation roadmap, preparing the right foundations for AI and using Microsoft Cloud to deliver measurable operational outcomes.
The biggest mistake organisations can make is starting with technology rather than the outcomes they want to achieve.
Digital transformation should begin by identifying operational priorities, whether that’s improving resilience, reducing pressure on frontline teams, making information easier to access or responding more effectively to changing demand.
From there, organisations need a clear understanding of their current environment, including ageing infrastructure, duplicated systems, data silos, security risks, contractual commitments and internal skills. Rather than trying to modernise everything at once, workloads should be prioritised based on their criticality, value and readiness for change.
At ANS, we use a structured engagement called Navigator to assess the current environment, define a future architecture and operating model, compare costs and build a realistic transition plan. The result is a practical roadmap that answers the questions senior leaders will ask around cost, risk, skills, timescales and operational value.
Legacy systems and siloed information continue to hold many emergency services back. Microsoft Cloud provides a way to bring infrastructure, applications, data and security together into a connected environment.
Using technologies including Microsoft Azure and Microsoft Fabric, organisations can create a trusted, centralised data platform where information is governed, analysed and made available to the people who need it. That gives leaders better visibility of operational demand, resources and performance, while supporting faster, more informed decision-making.
We’ve seen this approach deliver results in policing. South Yorkshire Police worked with ANS to implement a modern data platform in Microsoft Azure, creating a centralised data environment that strengthened reporting and operational insight. Leicestershire Police has also modernised ageing infrastructure through Microsoft Azure VMware Solution, creating a scalable cloud foundation for future innovation.
Being AI ready is about much more than deploying new tools.
Organisations need to understand what information AI can access, how that information is classified and protected, who is accountable for its use and where human oversight is required. They also need responsible AI principles, leadership ownership, governance and a clear plan for adoption, skills and measurement.
Microsoft’s Responsible AI framework is built around fairness, reliability and safety, privacy and security, inclusiveness, transparency and accountability.
Our advice is to begin with a controlled use case that solves a genuine operational challenge. Define success and risk measures from the outset, test with a suitable group of users and learn before scaling further.
ANS’s AI Readiness approach assesses an organisation’s strategy, platform, data, security and governance before producing an evidence-based roadmap, helping services avoid deploying AI before the wider organisation is prepared.
We adopted Microsoft Copilot internally before advising customers how to do the same.
The rollout began with a controlled deployment of 25 Microsoft 365 Copilot licences in December 2024, supported by a clear business case and success criteria. By the end of 2025, Copilot had been deployed across the organisation, delivering an estimated 65,000 hours of productivity savings annually and a 14-times return on investment.
One of the biggest lessons was that technology alone doesn’t deliver transformation. Executive sponsorship, strong governance, secure identity and data controls, responsible AI principles and ongoing adoption support were all essential.
We also created an AI Council and built a network of Copilot champions and super users to help colleagues apply AI to real operational tasks.
That experience allows us to give emergency services practical advice based on our own implementation. We understand where adoption can stall, how data risks can be amplified and why measurable outcomes and human oversight remain critical in mission-critical public services.
The strongest business cases connect cloud and AI investment directly to organisational priorities.
That means focusing on operational resilience, service continuity, workforce capacity, public value, cost and the ability to respond to future demand, rather than leading with technology.
For cloud transformation, we help organisations quantify the cost of maintaining the current environment, including hardware refreshes, support contracts, energy consumption, disaster recovery requirements and extended security support. Those costs are then compared against the investment required to modernise, alongside benefits such as greater scalability, improved resilience and stronger security.
For AI, the focus should be on a small number of measurable use cases. Leaders need to understand who benefits, what activity will improve or reduce, how success will be measured and what governance is needed to manage risk.
Navigator brings these elements together into a prioritised roadmap and board-ready output that gives leadership teams a clear basis for investment decisions.
ANS will be exhibiting on stand G92 in the Microsoft Partner Pavilion, where the team will be discussing cloud, data, AI, security and low-code technologies for emergency services.
Visitors can expect practical conversations about cloud modernisation, trusted data platforms, cyber resilience, secure management of digital forensic data and responsible AI adoption across policing and the wider public sector.
More importantly, ANS wants to hear where organisations are today and what is preventing progress, whether that’s ageing infrastructure, fragmented data, AI governance, skills gaps or uncertainty around building the business case.
The aim is for emergency service leaders and technology teams to leave with clarity on their next practical step, whether that’s assessing their current environment, strengthening data and security foundations, identifying an initial AI use case or developing a longer-term transformation roadmap.
To read similar articles, check out our Technology channel.
Meet ANS at the Microsoft Partner Pavilion throughout The Emergency Tech Show on 16-17 September at NEC, Birmingham. Register for your free ticket here.
Lanna is Deputy Editor of Emergency Services Times, covering news, interviews and features across the emergency services sector. She also supports the team’s coverage of The Emergency Services Show and The Emergency Tech Show.
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Cloud, data and AI need a strategy before they need technology – Emergency Services Times
